On International Children's Day​, marked today, the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation reaffirms its commitment to the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Rights of the Child, approved by the United Nations in 1959, which attributed them the right to equality, food, housing, health, free education, rest, social protection and priority care in case of catastrophe, special protection aimed at the physical, mental and social development, against abandonment and child labor, and to grow in a «a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples».

Saluting the victory of the "Freedom and Dignity" protest, and the end of the hunger strike last, Saturday May 27th, held by the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, following negotiations and the commitment by Israeli authorities to meet several of the protesters demands, we divulge a text cosigned by 25 Portuguese organizations made public on May 25th:

On 17 April, about 1500 Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons for resisting occupation and repression launched a hunger strike, the «strike for freedom and dignity».

The World Peace Council concluded successfully its anti-NATO actions in Brussels, as decided in its last World Assembly in Brazil last year, under the campaign “Yes to Peace-No to NATO”.

On Saturday May 20 2017 a demonstration against NATO took place on Wenceslas Square in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic. Protest was organised by the Czech Peace Movement in the framework of the international campaign of the World Peace Council "YES TO PEACE! NO TO NATO!" and was directed against the upcomming NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium.

The Cyprus Peace Council, responding to the World Peace Council's call for anti-NATO actions in its member countries, organizes in view of the NATO Summit in Brussels on May 25-26, an anti-NATO event under the slogan "Neither Cyprus in NATO - Nor NATO in Cyprus". The event will take place on Friday, May 26th at 19:00 at the Castle Square in Larnaca. The event will be attended by organized groups of Turkish Cypriots as well as immigrants.

Today marks one month since around 1500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails started a hunger strike, protesting the denial by Israeli authorities to respect basic rights, enshrined in international law, like access to medical care, against the torture and other forms of violence they endure and for the right to receive family visits, amongst other demands.

On May 2 2017 peace loving people of many countries remembered the third anniversary of the fascist masacre in the Trade Union House Odessa. The Czech Peace Movement together with other Czech peace and anti-fascist organizations commemorated on Wenceslas Square in Prague dozens of victims of this fascist muredrous attack in Odessa. Representative of the Czech Peace Movement Milan Krajča, underlined the importance to rember crime i Odessa three years ago as well as the role imperialism played in Ukraine openly supporting fascist and reactionary forces.

It is with revolt and concern that we follow the news of the arbitrary political process instituted by the Kingdom of Morocco against more than twenty Sahrawi activists, a process that has been dragged for seven years by authorities of a regime of military occupation.

According to international observers, the trials of 25 Sahrawis who have dared to participate in a peaceful protest in Gdeim Izik in 2010, in resistance against the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, are biased and unjust, destined to play a role in a farce in which the Moroccan regime is supposedly democratic.

The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation and other Portuguese organizations are developing a number of initiatives denouncing NATO's and its Brussels summit, throughout Portugal, that will culminate in street initiatives in Lisbon and Oporto on the 24th and 25th of May respectively.

The hunger strike of the Palestinian political prisoners approaches its first month and should continue mobilizing international support and action. The struggle of the Palestinians incarcerated by Israel – today, over 6,300 men, women and children – is urgent and essential in the Palestinian cause for the end of the Israeli occupation and for national liberation, and all those advocates of justice and peace must join it.
By Socorro Gomes*